Wow, where has Steve been? Makin' Movies (and other things….)

Just in case you’re wondering: it’s been pretty crazy-busy around here lately. But in a good way. Among other things:

I had the pleasure of hosting a panel discussion with some of our recent MA graduates about PhD studies in composition and rhetoric last week. It was really cool and, I am happy to say, we were able to use some nice and new video equipment to record it. Soon I’ll slap it up on the writing.emich.edu web site. Not exactly an “exciting action” shoot, but some really good discussion points.

I also had the pleasure of hosting (well, sorta) the bi-annual EMU First Year Writing Program Celebration of Student Writing. As always, that was a great event. It was the first time we had it in the new student center and its ballroom, which is a very fine space indeed. For the time-being, be sure to check out this link. But at some point in the near future, you will be able to view “The Celebration of Student Writing: The Movie,” a project I (along with Linda Adler-Kassner and my still photography colleague Steve Benninghoff) filmed/shot while this was going on. Quite the day; I showed up at about 7:45 am, left to go walk the dog and take my son to school, and then I was there from about 9:15 am until about 6:30 pm or so. A long and tired day, but a load of fun.

I have a lot of things to say about these video experiences, but for the time-being, let me just say that I find iMovie absolutely addictive. Better than almost any video game I’ve ever played.

And then there has been a lot of interesting developments as of late with the on-going struggle between the EMU-AAUP faculty union and the administration. There’s lots of discussion on EMUtalk.org; the short version is I am cautiously optimistic about the chances of actually settling this mess and moving on in a positive way.

And then there is the general chaos of the end of the term. It’s funny; I’ve been doing this work for years and years, but it seems to me that every semester, I never quite figure out what works best for my schedule until the semester is almost over. Oh well….

3 thoughts on “Wow, where has Steve been? Makin' Movies (and other things….)”

As for video editing, let me also suggest videator. It works with Quicktime formats, which is how I record my movies. If you’re publishing to the web, videator can cut the processing time relative to iMovie because there is no conversion to DV format when you import the movie.

I love the celebration of student writing. I may have to contact the folks who are listed as contacts to learn more about it. It seems a great way to wrap up the term. Otherwise, it’s so anti-climatic, at least in my classes.